Monday, 17 July, 2006

By Emily Maitlis
Presenter, BBC Newsnight

Presented by Emily Maitlis

Bush

It seems Mr Bush was not giving the thumbs up to Mr Annan

George Bush may have given away rather more than he bargained for today - caught on mic - unaware - criticising the UN Secretary General and his plans for a Middle East ceasefire. He was chewing a breadstick at the time, so his words are - shall we say - slightly trickier to understand than normal.

Thankfully, it wasn't a pretzel.

Middle East

The point is, of course, that world leaders are now scratching their heads publicly - and it seems privately - about what on earth to do about the deepening crisis.

Tony Blair and Kofi Annan have called for an international force to be sent in - but with no side showing any sign of slowing down, foreign intervention may not stand a chance. The leader of Hezbollah is now talking of a "war without limits". So what, if anything, could bring dialogue to the immediate conflict?

Tonight, with Gavin in Jerusalem, and Tim Whewell in Beirut we take a look at the militant group. What support does Hezbollah now have? Does the Lebanese government even want to get rid of it? We also have a full interview with Prince Hassan of Jordan and Israel's internal security minister.

Menezes

On the home front, who will now take responsibility for the killing of Jean Charles de Menezes? Anti terror officers learnt today they will not be facing criminal charges.

Instead the Met Police force as a whole will be prosecuted under health and safety laws - a move described by the Brazilian man's family as "ridiculous".

The public has still not been told the full story of events that day - so how can our confidence be restored one year on. And why has no firearms officer ever been convicted of either murder or manslaughter on the job?

Rule Britania

And we revisit the Britannia School in Newham - a place we've monitored for over a year - where the results of synthetic phonics have proved amm mmaz iiing.

Since the school introduced the reading system, it has propelled itself from the very bottom of the local league table to the top. Seven and eight year olds are buzzing with their progress. Kids, say their teachers, who would once have become disillusioned not just with school but with life.

So if it's that simple, why haven't all schools caught on to the secret? David Grossman goes on the case.